My Newest Toy

I am so in love!  If you like to make sugar cookies then you need to get the Message-in-Cookie Cutter from Williams Sonoma. 

It's amazing and super easy to use.  My 10 year old daughter used all three to make cookies to celebrate her new baby cousin.  So cool!

Not bad for a 10 year old!  You can use these for so many different occasions.  Thank you cookies, Get well cookies, Congratulations cookies or how about I'm sorry cookies.  I love it!

Happiness

I don't know about you, but I've been hearing a lot of talk lately about happiness.  Maybe it's the economy or maybe technology, but people seem to be seeking happiness in much simpler ways.  Most of the talk I am hearing isn't from people who are sad or depressed, just people who in the rat race of life are looking for ways to be happier.  I have just finished reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, which is a memoir of Gretchen's search for what brings her happiness. 


I found the book to be very insightful and inspiring.  It all just made so much sense to me.  A couple of things that resonated with me were doing things that didn't bring you happiness, but that you thought SHOULD bring you happiness.  That was eye opening.  There are so many things that I wish I loved to do.  I wish I enjoyed being active and the "outdoorsy" type, but that's not me.  Gretchen came to the conclusion that if it didn't bring her happiness then she shouldn't try to be something she's not.  Through this project, she became more mindful of the things that did bring her happiness like her family and her writing and so she spent time nurturing that. 

As I was finishing the book, I saw on Gretchen's blog that her book is going to be made into a TV series and Kristin Davis (Charlotte from Sex and the City) will be playing the lead role.  I was so super excited and so happy for Gretchen.  I will continue to read her blog and I just may start my own happiness project.  If you are interested in starting your own happiness project, Gretchen has a "happiness toolkit" available for free on her blog.  You should also sign up for her monthly newsletter!

Cake Boss

My daughter, Julia, and I went to a book signing in Boston for Buddy Valastro from Cake Boss, the hit TV show on TLC.  We got to the Barnes & Noble in Kenmore Square at 10:30 AM and waited in line for 2 hours to meet Buddy and have him sign our book.  To our amazement, we were the first in line and well, that has its benefits.  There was a picture of Julia and Buddy in the Boston Herald and we were just so excited.  I have started reading his book Cake Boss: Stories and Recipes from Mia Famiglia and I am loving it so much.

He is so nice in person and such a cutie!  It was fun to meet him and such a great day!!

The Secret Life of Bees

The Booktini gals got together to discuss The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.  We all enjoyed this beautifully written heartfelt story about a mother-daughter relationship, forgiveness and friendship.  Lilly is an amazing young girl seeking answers to the questions she has about her mother.  Her journey leads her to three sisters who have a honey bee farm.  It is there that she learns the truth about her mother and also learns to forgive herself.  It is such a moving story.  My favorite character is August.  She is comforting, wise and patient and exactly what Lilly needs right now in her young life.  This is Sue Monk Kidd's best work and I highly recommend it!  I also loved the movie, which stars Queen Lahtifa and Dakota Fanning. 

So, keeping with the bee theme, I made these adorable honey-lemon cupcakes:

Bernadette, another Booktini gal, brought a bottle of honey for each of us.  So fun!!  These are the little things that make book club so much fun!  We also have our next pick thanks to winning a book giveaway over at Book Movement!  We will be reviewing A Disobedient Girl by Ru Freeman in January.

We are each reviewing our own pick for November.  This is the first time we'll be doing this so I'll let you know how it works out!

Canobie Lake Screamfest

I have a love/hate relationship with autumn.  I love the colors of the season, the pumpkins, the foliage, and the smell of apple pie!  However, the thought of summer being over, winter right around the corner and the days getting shorter makes me sad.  I love the month of October - it's my birthday month, but I'm not a fan of Halloween, you know the scary stuff and all!  I hate horror movies, in fact I don't even like the commercials for them.  I'm such a wimp!  One thing that I did with my family and friends was go to Canobie Lake Park in New Hampshire for their Screamfest and it was a blast!  My kind of scary. 

If you live in New England you should definitely check it out!

More cupcakes!

So I got this great recipe from the Hostess with the Mostess blog - Pina Colada Cupcakes.  They were so super cute, but I wasn't crazy about the taste.  Maybe it was the texture, maybe I wasn't in the mood for it, but I just didn't like it.  However, ALL my girlfriends loved them and even my husband loved it - he prefers all things chocolate.  I am going to do my own version of pina colada cupcakes and if it turns out well I will post the recipe.  In the meantime, these look so impressive and are the perfect thing to bring to a girl's night get together and everyone will ooh and aah.  Love that!

And for all you New Englanders, yes, those are straws from Dunkin Donuts.

Sarah's Key

I just finished reading Sarah’s Key and it was such an amazing book. The book is about a girl in 1942 and a woman in the present day and how their lives come together. The book toggles between 1942 and the present, which is something I liked very much because I could only read about the holocaust for so many pages before it was just too much to bear. Going to the present every so many pages made it easier to read on an emotional level. I have always been highly affected by emotional books, especially those having to do with children. I couldn’t get through The Lovely Bones because I just couldn’t deal with what happened to the main character. So I was a bit afraid that I may not be able to read this, knowing that the premise was the holocaust and knowing that it was about a girl named Sarah. Thankfully I decided to give it a try otherwise I would have missed out on a great story.

I fell in love with the characters and the easy-going writing style of the author.  One page just flowed into the next and it was quite beautifully written.  I don’t want to give any spoilers because I think it’s important to read it knowing very little and it would take away a bit of the mystery.  I will say that when I got to the end of book I was sad that it was done.  I didn’t want it to end.